If you count yourself among those parents struggling during these unprecedented days in which you have been thrust into the role of at-home teachers, my friends in Public Media are racing to the rescue all across the nation and right here at home.
Responding to the need for educational resources for students as schools are closed due to the coronavirus, WNIT Public Television – PBS Michiana and the WORLD Channel, in partnership with PBS LearningMedia, will begin broadcasting At Home Learning programs for grades 6-12 tomorrow, Monday, March 30th.
The programs will be available Monday through Friday from Noon to 5:00 pm. The daily free-over-the-air broadcasts will feature the best in public media science, history and other educational programming. WNIT plans to air this new broadcast locally on temporary channel 34.5 for the duration of the pandemic. You are encouraged to rescan your televisions in order to recognize the new channel.
This At Home Learning block – suited to WORLD’s everyday schedule of news, information and documentary programming – has been carefully curated and supplemented with related assets from PBS LearningMedia, which is a free online service of thousands of compelling educational resources located at this link:
https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/
Greg Giczi, WNIT President and General Manager, says, “In these challenging times, our public media mission to support students with the educational resources needed to thrive is more important than ever,” and adds, “While our WORLD At Home Learning programs are geared to middle and high school students, our 24/7 PBS Kids service on channel 34.3 and daytime on our main channel 34.1 targets children in primary-school grades.”
You are invited to check local listings or click http://www.wnit.org for cable channels for both 34.1 and 34.2 in your area. Note that 34.5 will only be available over the air by antenna.
Giczi tells us, “With a commitment to educational multimedia, WNIT delivers curriculum-based resources that support parents and teachers in achieving children’s learning goals,” and adds, “We recognize that many families do not have access to the internet or computers at home, so we are leveraging our public media TV broadcast channels to reach teachers, students and caregivers across the state.”
For those that do have access to the internet and computers, WNIT is also offering additional resources during this crisis. Families may sign up for a daily email highlighting that day’s programming by going to wnit.org and clicking on the link in the story entitled “Are You On the List?” Here’s a direct link: https://www.wnit.org/a/are-you-on-the-list.html
Additional resources are available at the following links:
- Live Streaming of 24/7 PBS KIDS Channel with activities to reinforce skills being learned: https://www.wnit.org/kids/channel.html
- PBS KIDS’ new weekday newsletter offers activities and tips you can use to help kids play and learn at home: https://www.pbs.org/parents/
WNIT wishes all viewers, the community and everyone affected by this devastating pandemic good health, saying, “We are doing our part to enhance local education by expanding our learning resources for children, parents and families during this time.”
Full disclosure, I have been a member of the Board of Directors at WNIT for more than 20 years, and also served for nearly 10 years on the board of America’s Public Television Stations in Washington, D.C.
